Hi. I apologize that this is such a long “question,†but I’ve included some history regarding this problem.
Jasmin, my very dear 11-ish-year-old 13-lb cat has had a very rough time this whole month!!! We took her to the vet at the end of January when we noticed she had urinary frequency and blood in her urine. She seemed her usual self otherwise. The vet diagnosed a struvite cystitis/infection and placed her on a liquid antibiotic twice a day and special canned food to dissolve the struvite crystals. (She was also found to have hyperthyroidism and was prescribed Tapazole, which has brought her thyroid levels back to normal.)
When we took her back for a recheck on Wednesday, 02/13/08, we were chastised because we had been giving in to her fervent vocal “requests†for her other food and goodies (a few small pieces of cooked chicken, pork, beef, or fish per day; occasionally 1-2 tbsps of water from canned tuna; and 1/2 tsp of half-n-half every morning when I have coffee). We also had not given her the morning dose of Tapazole that day, so they said there was no point in doing any lab testing. We went home with a fresh bottle of liquid antibiotic and advice to practice “tough love†with our girl with respect to her diet. We made an appointment for Thursday, 02/21/08 for another recheck.
We let her get hungry enough that she did eat some of the prescription canned food, but she would eat only about 1 tbsp per feeding.
However, by Wednesday, 02/20/08, she had not had a BM for 4 days and seemed very uncomfortable, so we took her to the vet again. They sedated her and took x-rays, gave her an enema, and had to assist evacuation. They also did some labs. She still had some WBCs in her urine, so we were advised to continue giving her the antibiotic twice a day. She seemed fine when we brought her home that afternoon.
The next day, Thursday, we thought maybe she might like the dry version of the prescription food better, so we bought some of that. That afternoon she ate some of the dry food but had absolutely no appetite the rest of the day and wasn’t feeling well at all. She went to her “bed†in our closet and stayed there until late that night. I tried to soothe her and stroke her tummy, but she made it clear she did not want to be bothered. She just laid around in the living room. After a couple hours she went back to the closet and stayed there.
On Friday, 02/22/08, at 4 in the morning, she came out from the closet and violently vomited a very large amount of brown material that smelled like feces, and she seemed so weak she could barely stand up. My husband and I both freaked out! I immediately called the vet and told her what was going on, and she assured me the vomit was digested food that had been in her stomach and upper intestines. The vet explained possible causes for the vomiting but reassured us that if Jasmin was still breathing and responsive to us, we should wait and watch and bring her in around 8 a.m. ... that is, unless she decompensated further. She got up from her bed 2 more times to vomit, but there was not so much substance to it the 2nd and 3rd time.
By the time we brought her in to the vet, she was very weak and listless. The vet did another x-ray, and we were relieved to see that Jasmin did not appear to have any blockage or serious problem in her intestines, and it looked like there was now stool in her rectum status post her enema. Jasmin was given an injection for hydration and some more injections of medicine to quell the nausea and ease her tummy discomfort/spasm. She also got an antibiotic injection and some packets of FortiFlora to sprinkle on her food.
She slept for most of the rest of the day in the closet and came out around suppertime but was not really hungry. We were able to get her to take her thyroid medicine with a little piece of chicken. We offered her some of her canned food, but she refused it. Then she went back to bed.
On Saturday she seemed to be feeling a little better. She had a little bit of an appetite and ate some her food and took her thyroid medicine, drank some water, bathed herself, and finally had a BM. (I’ve never been so excited about cat poo!)
We gave her the twice-a-day liquid antibiotic on Monday but then decided to discontinue it because the process was stressing her out too much. The vet recommended that she stay on it for a month!
We have not given her the antibiotic since Monday, but I have been giving her about 1/8-1/4 tsp of live culture yogurt every day, and her appetite has finally returned; and she is eating her special food.
Yesterday I ordered some homeopathic pet medicine from http://www.nativeremedies.com to help her with the UTI and constipation as we do not want to subject her to another enema unless absolutely imperative.
It is very worrisome that she has not had a BM since last Saturday. However, she is obviously feeling much better. She is drinking water and peeing and eating and behaving like her usual loveable self. Obviously, if she shows signs of being in distress, we will immediately get her to the vet again.
I would just like some additional professional feedback as to whether we are on the right track or not.
We have already paid over $1000 on vet services and can barely afford it, but we love our “little girl†very much.
